Disposable absorbent articles, such as diapers, training pants, and catamenial devices, having lotioned topsheets are known. Lotions of different types are known to provide various skin benefits, such as prevention or treatment of skin rash. These lotions can be applied to the topsheet of absorbent articles, for example, and can be transferred to the skin of the wearer during use.
Unlike many types of disposable absorbent articles, catamenial devices, such as pads and pantiliners, are specifically designed to acquire menstrual fluid. Menstrual fluid differs from other exudates, such as urine, in many important properties, such as viscosity, solids, chemical constituents, and/or color content. Therefore, catamenial devices differ from other absorbent articles, like baby diapers, in their structural components to optimize the absorption of menstrual fluid.
Treatments to the bodyside surface of the topsheet of absorbent products provide skin health benefits and allow a fluid, such as urine or menses, to be absorbed into the absorbent product. Skin health benefits include a reduced direct contamination of body fluids in contact with the body surface and/or delivery by ingredients to improve skin function, i.e., a skin barrier. Nonetheless, these treatments are known to impede the acquisition of body fluids, and strategies have been designed to position these treatments on regions of the bodyside surface of the topsheet to minimize their effect on fluid acquisition.
Treatments of the bodyside surface of the topsheet of feminine hygiene products have been proposed to provide skin health benefits, and similarly treatment deployment generally is designed to minimize the hindrance of menstrual fluid acquisition. Nonetheless, topsheet treatments often become ineffective after repeated assaults of body fluids due to deposition of blood cells or other soils on the topsheet surface. In addition, the treatment sometimes provokes negative product failure signals to the user of the feminine hygiene product, including the appearance of a dirty or soiled topsheet and/or negative odors. This type of treatment on a topsheet may provide a compromised skin health benefit and an unacceptable appearance of a used feminine hygiene product.
It would be beneficial therefore to provide a treatment for feminine hygiene articles that facilitates migration of fluid away from the body and through the topsheet into the absorbent core of the article.
Additionally, it would be beneficial to provide a treatment for feminine hygiene articles that enables migration of a fluid, such as menstrual fluid, in a controlled fashion.
Further, it would be beneficial to provide a treatment for feminine hygiene articles that facilitates a fluid, such as menstrual fluid, being moved in a manner that enhances the perceived cleanliness of both the topsheet and the skin of the wearer, especially after multiple assaults of bodily fluid.
It also would be beneficial to provide a treatment for feminine hygiene articles that resists fouling of the topsheet and the skin of the wearer of the articles by proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates present in menses.